Ashley's first adventure
by LucyMagnus
Summary: Helen went on a mission when she discovered she was followed by her daughter. They would enjoy the adventure together.
1. Chapter 1

**I finally**** decided to write story what would be longer than one chapter. I didn't finish it yet, it's still in process so I have no idea how often I'll update new chapters but I promise I'll do my best and write new chapters as quickly as possible.**

**I'd like to thank July, my beta-reader. But even though if you'll find any mistake, I'll take all the responsibility. I have to admit, English isn't my mother language but I still try to do my best.**

**I hope you'll like this story and please, review it, so I'll know what do you think about it.**

**Enjoy!**

It was a perfect day for looking for some interesting adventures. The sky was blue with only few small white fluffed clouds which ran from time to time across the sun. A light breeze blew leaves off the top of some trees. It was an early morning and the air was full of the noise of busy insects and of bird songs. This lovely spring day couldn't be better.

Helen finally stopped her car and got out. She stretched her arms before she opened the rear door and took out her bag full of tools, equipment, food and water, simply everything what could came up handy while she wanted to spend the whole day outside and far away from any civilization. With a final bang she shut the door, locked the car and looked on the almost invisible pathway she needed to go. A smile appeared on her face when she started her walk. This was something she was looking forward for weeks maybe even for months. She was happy that she could finally make this trip.

With easy pace she walked for almost an hour before she arrived at the place she intended to visit. If the information she had were right, somewhere around here should be an opening to a cave, where Helen wanted to go. She put her bag on the ground, took a bottle of water out of it and looked around while she was drinking. After few sips of water her eyes stopped on some spot to her left. It looked promising.

Helen packed up her bottle and left her bag behind. She went to the place she saw moments ago. There were bushes and ivy all over the spot but that didn't discourage her. Helen took out a knife which was hidden in a holster on her right thigh. With the help of the sharp tool she was able to cut off ivy and some branches of the bushes. When she finished cutting there was an opening to a cave waiting for her. Helen smiled to herself.

She went back to her bag, grabbed it, put it on one shoulder and went back to the opening. In her left hand appeared a light while the knife was still in her right hand. She didn't expect anything extraordinary but it was better to be safe than sorry. It wasn't first time that she did something like this so she wasn't imprudent.

She stopped at the opening and switched the light on. The dark entrance was suddenly illuminated with yellow light. There were cobwebs all over the entrance so Helen used her knife to cut her way in. After the cleaning work she finally stepped inside. She looked around her but she didn't see any threat so she slowly continued walking forward.

Helen felt goose-bumps on her bare arms half from the colder weather in the cave half from the pleasant tension. Even though she has done this many times before she always felt a bit nervous when she stepped into something new, something promising. This was the case definitely. She did some research about the cave long time ago but still wasn't sure if this was really the right place. But that changed when she stepped in the cave. She was a scientist so she knew this was irrational but anyway she felt in her bones that this was the right place. Even if she wanted to she couldn't explain the feeling. But that didn't matter right now.

Helen was slowly walking forward her hand with the light was swinging from side to side to see everything and to prevent some unexpected surprise. She listened intently to every sound but there was dead silence. She could hear only her calm breathing. There wasn't any other sound. At least that was what she thought until she heard something. She stopped to listen more intently. Helen shook her head. The sound was gone. She wasn't even sure what exactly she had heard. After few seconds of listening she decided to continue. But after only few steps she heard the sound again. And as before the sound disappeared when she stopped.

Helen was thinking for a moment until she came into conclusion that someone was following her. The grip over her knife tightened. Whoever was it she was ready. She made a few steps back to the entrance of the cave. There was a turn to the right in front of her. She pressed her body against the cold stone before she quickly looked around the corner. Although she thought anything couldn't surprise her she definitely wasn't ready for what she saw.

"Ashley!" she cried with surprise.

"Mom" blurted out the eleven year old girl.

"What are you doing here? How did you get here?" Helen asked her little daughter. She left her in the Sanctuary. Well, at least that she thought.

Ashley smiled nervously. She wanted to surprise her mom but she wasn't ready to be caught. She had a different plan and this wasn't in it. She looked at her mom and when she didn't see any anger in her eyes she decided it was safe to tell the truth. Even if she wanted to lie she couldn't. Her mom taught her not to and she didn't want to disappoint her.

"I was hiding in the trunk of the car" Ashley answered and she was proud that her voice didn't tremble.

"Oh Ashley" Helen sighed. She finally put the knife back into holster. Ashley was definitely not a threat. "That was really dangerous. I hope you won't do it again. Anyway why did you do that?"

Ashley shifted from her left foot to right one. She was sure her mom would be angry at her but she didn't have another choice. "I wanted to go with you and experience an adventure" Ashley confessed.

Then Ashley explained that she had heard her talking to Ravi about this trip, about all the promising signs Helen had discovered and so Ashley decided it was the right time to experience some adventure herself. But Ashley was sure that Helen wouldn't take her with her. She couldn't came up with a better idea than hiding herself in the trunk in the morning before Helen left and hoped she wouldn't be discovered until they would have left the Sanctuary.

"I was following you after you left the car and then I saw you walk into this cave so I went too. How did you know that I was behind you?"

"It was too quiet here so I heard your footsteps" Helen answered without thinking. Then she finally looked properly at hear daughter and what she saw made her smile.

Ashley was dressed in khaki trousers and a beige T-shirt with brown jumpers over her shoulders. On her shoulders was a bag which was almost bigger than Ashley herself. She really looked like a young explorer and Helen had to admit to herself that she loved the way Ashley looked.

Helen finally smiled at her daughter. "Look at you" Helen said "You seem to be ready for whatever this adventure could bring to us."

Ashley smiled too. She was delighted that her mom wasn't angry at her. She just wanted to be like her mom and to prove her she could be as brave as she is.

"What do you have in your bag?" Helen asked curiously.

Ashley opened her bag and let Helen look inside. Helen could see food, water, blankets, lights, and even Ashley's favourite teddy-bear. Helen found a camera, a notepad and a few pencils. Ashley explained to her that it was for the finding. After that Helen was extremely proud of her daughter. She packed up every important thing Helen had in her bag too.

When Helen finally looked back at her daughter she saw the question in her eyes. She smiled at her and said the exact thing her daughter wanted to hear.

"Let's go and explore whatever is hidden in here," Helen said with big smile on her face.

Ashley beamed and clapped her hands together. She was happy her mom didn't want to take her back to the Sanctuary. She took her mom's hand and they walked together toward an adventure.

TO BE CONTINUED...


	2. Chapter 2

Ashley and Helen walked hand in hand in pleasant silence. They both enjoyed the presentence of the other one. It wasn't easy for Helen to raise her daughter while running her Sanctuary back in Old Town and being the Head of all the Sanctuaries. But she tried her best to be the best mom of the world. She always kept Ashley aside from her trips in which she was looking for new Abnormals, kept her safe form everything dangerous. She took her from time to time with her in different Sanctuaries all over the world, but she always left her in a safe place.

Now, when she looked at her daughter, carrying bravely her big bag, she realized how happy she was to have her here. On the other hand she felt more responsibility than when she was alone. She didn't care if she suffered from pain after some of her trips but now she had to make sure Ashley will come from this adventure unharmed.

Helen hoped Ashley would be some day ready to help her with all the work but she didn't wish to show her little one the bad side of her job today. She really hoped it would be a peaceful trip and they both would enjoy it.

Suddenly Ashley couldn't be quiet any longer. She didn't want to disturb her mother in her thoughts but she had her head full of questions and her desire for answers grew bigger and bigger with every minute passing by in silence.

"Mom, what we are looking for? Is there a hidden new abnormal?" Ashley finally asked the two most pressing questions she had in her head.

Helen stopped walking and looked at her daughter. Her questions reminded her that Ashley was no longer the little baby she used to be. She was growing up so quickly that it surprised Helen from time to time. She was introducing her daughter to her world slowly so Ashley knew what her mother was doing but she didn't know about the difficult and dangerous part. Even though this trip looked like an easy one, Helen thought that she should prepare her daughter that it could change into something not so cool as Ashley was thinking about the adventure now.

"Do you remember when I told you about vampires?" Helen asked her daughter.

Ashley nodded with her head so vehemently that her blonde hair flew forwards and backwards. She always tried to remember everything her mom was telling her about every abnormal they were talking about. She wanted to be like her mom so she was always paying attention.

"Well, I think somewhere here could be a hidden place with information about vampires. I'd like to know more about them and I think there could be some things that belonged to them." Helen explained.

"That's cool, mom!" Ashley exclaimed happily. "But how do you want to find it when it's hidden?" She asked the most important question.

Helen smiled. Ashley always could pick up the most important question. It reminded her when she has been a child and was talking with her dad about something interesting. Helen has been as curious as her daughter was now.

"That's the reason why I came here early, to have enough time for finding it. Look, we are still at the beginning of this tunnel and who knows where it will lead us." Helen explained to her daughter.

Ashley nodded thoughtfully. This made sense to her so she started to walk slowly forward. She really wanted to discover something interesting, something she could talk to Biggie about. Ashley knew that there wasn't any vampire left on the Earth but she hoped there would be hidden something cool because she knew vampires were cleverer than humans like her mom had told her.

Then they suddenly came to the end of the tunnel. There wasn't any other way on the left or on the right side. It looked like a dead end without any trace of vampires. Ashley sighed. This wasn't what she had expected. She thought there would be big cave full of vampire technology. The dead end disappointed her more than she had imagined.

"What now?" Ashley asked with sad voice "Are we going home?"

But Helen wasn't listening to her. She went closer to the stone wall to look at it more carefully. She was so sure this was the right cave so she couldn't admit that she was wrong. After so many weeks of research she didn't want to turn back and walk away with empty hands. There had to be something she felt it in her guts. When she touched the wall, there was a big noise and the wall started to move to the right side of the tunnel. Helen took a few steps away from the wall with her eyes fully open with awe.

„That was cool, mom! How did you do that?" Ashley asked excitedly.

Helen glanced back at her daughter and then again at the new entrance. She wasn't sure how she had opened the hidden door but something was telling her that it was connected somehow with the vampire blood she injected years ago. She has never told her daughter about it and she definitely didn't want to tell her now.

„I'm not sure, honey" she finally answered her daughter. „I think it knows that we are good girls and we only want to look inside" she smiled at her.

„We can go inside, right?" Ashley asked a little bit nervous. She hoped they could go in but she was nervous about what could be waiting for them there. Then she reminded herself that she wanted to experience some adventures. This was the reason why she was hiding the whole time in the trunk of her mom's car.

„Yes, we can" Helen nodded. „But stay with me all the time, alright? We have no idea what's waiting for us so it would be better to be careful just in case we find something what could be dangerous." Helen tried to calm her daughter down. She saw in her eyes that she was nervous and she wasn't as enthusiastic as she was when Helen found out Ashley was following her. „Don't worry, we'll be fine."

Ashley smiled at her mom and she took her hand. Even though she told everyone she was a big girl, right now she felt like she was four years old again when she has been afraid of the darkness. Her heart was pounding so quickly that Ashley thought it had to jump out of her body.

Helen squeezed Ashley's hand and smiled an encouraging smile at her. She knew her daughter was frightened but she appreciated that she didn't want to turn back and go back to the Sanctuary. Helen was proud of her brave little one. She really hoped they wouldn't find anything dangerous, anything what could scare Ashley. Helen was prepared for everything but she could imagine how difficult it had to be for Ashley who did this for the very first time of her life.

Then they finally took their first step together. They slowly passed the open door and went inside the cave. They didn't see everything, only the area which was illuminated by their lights. But what they saw disappointed them. There wasn't anything interesting, any vampire's technology, anything valuable. When they were inside the cave, something unexpected happened.

The door behind them, or more likely the wall, which opened when Helen touched it, started to close. Helen left Ashley's hand and rushed toward the entrance. She tried to stop the door closing but she wasn't strong enough. The door closed with final puff and Helen and Ashley were trapped.

„Mom?" Ashley asked nervously. She did her best to suppress panic in her voice but she was sure she wasn't completely successful.

Helen came back to her daughter and hugged her tightly. „Don't worry, we'll be perfectly fine. I'm sure there is another exit, we just have to find it. In the meantime we can explore this cave. I hope we can find something what will tell us where the second exit is."

Ashley was glad she was here with her mom, who knew perfectly what to do. If she would have been here alone she would have panicked. But hidden in mom's arms she felt safe although she didn't like they were trapped. She didn't like this adventure any more.

TO BE CONTINUED...


End file.
